


Way Back Home

by Septdeneuf



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Angst, Dystopia, Evil AU, Gen, Multiple Universes, Post-Apocalypse, Rock Star AU, Zombie Apocalypse, including but not limited to:
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-04
Updated: 2015-09-08
Packaged: 2018-04-19 00:35:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4726163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Septdeneuf/pseuds/Septdeneuf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After being caught in the explosion of a portal, Lucy finds herself traveling through other worlds, without any way to contact her friends. Can she find her way back?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. No Magic in the Air

**Author's Note:**

> I've decided to migrate this one to AO3 as well. Original is on Fanfiction.net

_Prologue_

She wasn't quite sure where the realization had come from, to be honest, but in that one moment things couldn't have been more clear to Lucy. 

All her friends had had it at one point or another. Their hero moment. Where they rose above and beyond what had previously been their limits and saved everything with the power they gained from their determination that stemmed from the bonds with their nakama.

This was hers. 

She'd had one before, when she'd managed to summon the spirit king and save Loke, but she hadn't really been aware of how big it was at the time, too focused on trying to save her friend.

Now, as she stepped onto the platform that housed the portal device that was shaking so violently that the entire cave trembled with it, she knew exactly what she was doing. She had to solve this problem, or else it would mean destruction not only for her friends but possibly so many more innocent people. Failure was not an option. 

The fighting was still going on around her, but as she plunged her hand into the well of unstable magical power it felt as though all the sounds stilled themselves, leaving only her and the device that was about to blow. 

Closing a gate to another world that was so unstable it could very well rip both of their worlds to pieces, it was practically part of her job description. The glistening magic danced its way up her arm as she concentrated all her power on pushing away the foreign world that was lying just beyond her fingertips. Just as if she was performing a forced gate closure she did her best to use her power to seal shut the gap between the worlds. 

And it was working. A breathless laugh escaped her lips as she felt the other world distancing itself from her, growing ever further to the point that she could hardly tell it was still there. 

But just as people had their hero moments, there was also the much less pleasant concept of 'oh shit' moments. One of which was occurring when Lucy realized that while she had succeeded in saving both her world and the other from colliding, the magic she was connected to was still violently unstable, and was fusing into her with a speed that barely left her time to fully realize what was happening. 

From somewhere behind her, someone was shouting "Get away from there!" but it wasn't the most helpful suggestion, because even if she wasn't scared that letting go could make all her previous efforts go to waste, she probably wouldn't have been able to remove herself from the device anymore, anyway. 

She really hadn't meant for this to be a moment of heroic self sacrifice. If she had it probably wouldn't have worked out that way, because Natsu had a knack for stopping people from doing that, but here she was, unable to get away from the device that was about to blow. 

Lucy turned around, maybe to say something, maybe to look at her friends one last time, she didn't even know herself, but before she could do either, there was a blinding flash of light, and everything went black around her. 

 

* * *

 

_Chapter 1 - No Magic in the Air_

When Lucy came to an undefined amount of time later, she twitched her fingers and was delighted to find that she still had fingers. And an arm. Two, even! Things were looking much better than she'd expected them to, to be honest. A wriggling of her toes confirmed that her legs were also still present and in working order, and if she took to the whole _Cogito ergo sum_ philosophy, the fact that she could check all these things was proof that she was still alive. 

Maybe she should be taking notes about this feeling right now. Knowing the feeling of certain death and having miraculously escaped it would be great material for her novel. Not that this was the first time that feeling had happened to her, but she hadn't been able to write that down at those points in time, either. 

She finally opened her eyes, and was a little confused to see that she was surrounded by green walls that looked like they were grown out of a tree. Not that she'd really had any expectations as to where she was, but this somehow didn't fit. 

After looking at her hands for a moment, happy that they were still there, she used them to push herself up from the soft bed with white sheets she was laying on. 

"Oh hey!", a cheerful voice greeted her. "Lucy! She's awake!", he yelled, and Lucy saw a very familiar looking head of rose hair. "Not you", he told her. "I mean, yes, you're the one that's awake, but not the one I was talking to. I was telling the other Lucy, cause you probably know you're awake, but she doesn't." 

At the half confused half irritated look Lucy shot him, he threw up his hands and whimpered. "I'm sorry!" 

It was then she noticed his flame lined black pants and the goggles on his forehead, paired with a noticeable lack of scarf. Lucy blinked several times at the realization,her mind a little slow to catch up with what she was seeing. 

Just then the door opened and the sight of herself in a tight leather outfit with slightly shorter hair (though it had grown since they'd last met) let the doubts dissipate from her mind. She was, without a doubt, back in Edolas. "How did this happen?", she asked aloud.

"Beats me", Lucy Ashley said with a shrug. "Jet and Droy found you lying somewhere in the wasteland on their last mission, decided to take you here" 

"We sort of thought you would be able to tell us how you got here", Natsu Dragion said with a timid smile, half hiding behind Edo-Lucy even though Lucy was reasonably sure that her counterpart was the more dangerous of the two. 

"Uh…" Lucy said dumbly and tried to recall what had happened before she'd woken up here. Oh right, the fight with that cult, the transdimensional portal thing and her brilliant scheme to fix that. And the explosion. "There was a big explosion." 

"Isn't that what your Fairy Tail always does? Make stuff explode?", Lucy Ashley asked, even though she didn't seem all that interested. 

"Yeah… not really sure how that made me end up here. How long was I out?" 

"You've been sleeping here for about a day, but we don't know how long you were out before Jet and Droy found you, Earthland-Lucy-san", Edo Natsu said. 

"Huh. Well I have to go back", Lucy said. "Can you help me?"

"And how are we supposed to do that? Not sure if you know, but we don't have any magic in this world anymore", Edo Lucy said. "You're gonna have to find a way on your own." Edolas Fairy Tail. Eager to help a friend in need as always. How they managed to pull off any missions really was beyond her. 

"How helpful", Lucy said sarcastically. 

"Oh don't whine, we took you in, nursed you back to health and what do we get for our trouble? This attitude?" Edo Lucy said with a scowl on her face. 

"Actually we just waited…", Edo Natsu said, but at Edo Lucy's glare he threw his hands up again and apologized profusely. 

Lucy sighed. "Sorry, I just really wasn't expecting ever to be here again." They had helped her, she had to admit that. She could still be lying around somewhere being eaten by a giant toad or whatever was hopping around in this crazy world. 

"Yeah, well we weren't expecting to see you again, either. This time nobody got turned into Lacrima, right?", Edo Lucy asked. 

"Not that I know of", Lucy replied. "But now that I am here, I do want to know, how have you guys been doing without magic?" 

"Okay, I guess. A lot of stuff isn't as comfortable as before, but we came up with some creative solutions for some everyday problems, meaning the guild's business is dong better than ever. And we're not a dark guild anymore, since guilds are allowed again, that's a plus", Lucy Ashley explained. 

"And I'm rich!", Edo Natsu supplied with a grin on his face. When Lucy Ashley shot him another glare he quickly amended, "But only because Lucy realized the business opportunity and took over regulating the business, and as my business partner she's rich, now, too."

"That's better." 

"How did you get rich?", Lucy asked, choosing this over the other question that had occurred to her which was if he was rich, how come he was still wearing exactly the same clothes he'd been wearing before. Couldn't he afford something nicer, now?

"Well, without magic my car wouldn't run, and you know, without it I'm kinda…" 

"The biggest wuss in the universe", Lucy Ashley supplied helpfully. 

"Yeah that", Edo Natsu admitted with a slight blush. "So I really needed my car to get going again, and I managed to find a way, and I thought I could just do transportation missions again, like I used to, but Lucy came up with the idea that we could build more non magical cars and sell them. And that's doing really well." 

"Really? You managed to make your car go without magic?", Lucy asked, intrigued. 

"Yeah. With refined oil, and a system that makes a small explosion in a…", he started with a proud grin on his face, but Edo Lucy interrupted him. "Blabla, nobody cares as long as it makes money." She completely ignored the dejected look Natsu had on his face as he let out a sigh at not being able to explain his genius invention and turned to face Lucy. 

"So anyway, now that you're here, there was a question I'd been meaning to ask you, but I didn't get to when you were here. How's the sex?" 

Lucy felt her cheeks growing very warm "Wha… What sex?", she asked, confused. 

"You know, with your Natsu. I mean he's a lot more badass than mine, but if you guys are so different, I bet it's all vanilla", Lucy Ashley said with a mischievous grin. 

"I don't have sex with Natsu!", Lucy practically shrieked. 

"No? Oh right, the Gray from your world is the one that doesn't wear any clothes, right? How's he?" 

"I don't have sex with Gray, either. Or anybody for that matter!" It occurred to Lucy just a moment too late that this wasn't information she'd want for Edo Lucy to have, but it was too late, now. 

"No? Then what do you have the whip for?" The way Edo Natsu said it, in his sweet tone, with a completely innocent look on his face made Lucy need a moment before she realized it was probably the perviest thing anybody had ever said to her. It took her significantly less time to decide that he needed to be beaten up for it. As she chased him around the room, him doing his best to shield himself with his arms and apologizing over and over, Lucy Ashley was laughing so hard that she had to clutch her stomach and her face went red from lack of oxygen.

* * *

After Lucy was done beating Edo Natsu into a whimpering mess (which really wasn't much of a difference, to be honest) she'd went with him and Edo Lucy to get some food in the guild hall. She had never been there herself, and had met most of the guild members only briefly during their final fight against the royal army, so she enjoyed seeing them and noticing the differences between them and her friends. 

She ended up having tea with Cana who spouted endless speeches about how a proper lady should not drink alcohol (Lucy was planning on teasing her Cana with those, as soon as she was back home), and then joined Levy (who was nice enough, if you didn't mind her incredibly short fuse) in a scheme to steal Gray's jacket, which was a success, and led to him clinging to Juvia because he was so cold. That didn't end well for him.

But as much as she enjoyed spending the afternoon with Edolas' Fairy Tail it was equally clear to her that she wouldn't be like Lisanna and simply accept the fact that she was stuck here. Fortunately she had a suspicion on who could help her. 

"So, how do I find Mystogan?", she asked her Edolas counterpart. 

"Who?", Lucy Ashley asked, confused. "Wait… you don't mean King Gérard, do you?" 

"Well, I think I do, why?" 

"You can't just walk into the castle and go talk to the King!", Edo Natsu said, looking slightly scandalized at the idea. 

"Why not?" Lucy wanted to know. 

"Because he's the King!" 

"So? He knows me, and with all the travelling he did in Earthland he probably knows how to get back", Lucy reasoned. Not that she knew him particularly well, but she didn't have to tell them that. One conversation in which he'd stayed infuriatingly enigmatic wasn't really knowing him, but it was close enough. He was a (former) Fairy Tail mage, after all. 

"You Earthland people really have no respect for the way things are going, do you?", Edo Lucy asked, sounding sort of annoyed, but maybe, if Lucy wasn't imagining it, also a little fond. 

"It's not an Earthland thing in general, mostly just us Fairy Tail mages", Lucy explained. 

"Well, if you want to barge into the royal castle, who are we to stop you? Natsu, take her there and then let her figure out the rest for herself", Edo Lucy instructed, to which Edo Natsu reacted by going significantly paler. 

"M…Me?", he stuttered.

"Well I don't see anyone else here who recently invented a revolutionary way of powering a car and is specialized on transportation, do you?", she snapped at him, making him, once again, apologize while shielding himself. 

* * *

Once they'd made it to the Royal Castle, which really wasn't that far since the Guild had relocated to be on the outskirts of the Capital, Lucy was really glad to be leaving the car. It mostly looked the way it had before, but now it was incredibly loud, so that it really didn't make much of a difference that Natsu transformed into his confident self, because she couldn't hear a word he said, anyway. 

And it also filled the air around it with stinky smoke. All in all Lucy wasn't sure if this was really so much better than simply walking, but she didn't want to hurt the timid Natsu's feelings. Who knew if she might need his assistance again. Then again, she was reasonably sure that Edo Natsu wasn't capable of holding a grudge, anyway. 

She said goodbye to him as he dropped her off and pointed out where she needed to go (or he could've been pointing out his favorite bakery, who knew, since his words were lost in all the noise the car was making even as it wasn't moving. 

But the huge door she was standing in front of did look rather important, with several scowling members of the royal army standing around, eyeing her suspiciously. Their clothes had different colors and a different logo on them than before, but all in all they didn't look too different from when she'd been fighting them, which honestly didn't give her a very good feeling. 

Still, she had to get past them, so she drew up her shoulders and walked towards them with all the confidence she could muster. 

"Hi. I'm here to speak to the king", she said. 

"And why should we let you talk to him?", one of the guards asked grumpily. "He's the king, sure, but he can't take care of everybody's little problems." 

"He knows me. Tell him Lucy Heartfilia from Magnolia is here, and I'm sure he'll want to speak to me", Lucy announced. She wasn't quite sure if he knew the different last names from Earthland's and Edolas's Fairy Tail members, so she mentioned the name of the town. It seemed safer to her than telling them she was from Earthland, because she had no idea how they'd react to that. 

The guard she was talking to grumbled something to one of his colleagues, who left grumbling. None of them seemed particularly eager to help her, but it seemed as if they weren't ignoring her, at least. "Wait here", he told Lucy and went back from scowling at her to scowling at the world at large. 

Lucy was left to stand around awkwardly, looking around at the puzzlingly green sky and the town that still didn't seem quite recovered from the havoc that had been caused by the Dragonslayers when the magic had gone away. 

Suddenly she heard the quick pitter patter of feet coming from the castle, and saw Coco running towards her, who seemed to have grown a lot. Right. Seven years would've passed in Edolas as well. So why weren't they done repairing the town yet?

"Kind Gérard wants to see you at once", Coco said, panting. "Follow me, please." The guard at the door looked extremely surprised at that statement, and Lucy couldn't shooting him a smug grin. 

"Why are you back?", Coco said with trepidation as soon as they were out of the guard's earshot. "Is something wrong?" 

"I didn't mean to come here, and I'm hoping Mystogan will be able to help me get back home", Lucy explained. Coco looked doubtful at that, but apparently decided not to comment. 

After just a few corridors Lucy was completely lost and knew that if she didn't follow Coco she might never see the light of day again, and did her best to keep up the girl's pace. She was walking, but apparently Coco's normal speed wasn't what most people would consider walking.

At one of turns a small, creepy looking figure emerged, and Lucy had to suppress a shiver when she realized it was Byro, the guy she had fought before, who had turned into a giant squid. Without meaning to, her fingers found their way to grip her keys, just in case. 

"Well well well, what do we have here?", he said in that sly tone of his. "An Earthland mage, I believe. Are the dark ages of lost magic finally over?" 

"I'm supposed to take her to the king", Coco said. 

"Why so hasty? With her at our disposal maybe we can find a way to undo the damage the demon king Dragneel did…" 

"Oh shut up, Squid dude", Lucy said. "You can't turn into a giant monster anymore, so don't expect me to be afraid of you. By the way, was it you who came up with that stupid plan of letting the Lacrima collide with the Exceed so it rains down eternal magic?" 

"That plan wasn't stupid!", the guy defended.

"Yes it was. Did no one realize that the only reason the Exceed and Earthland, too, have unlimited magic, is that they can produce it in their bodies, by being alive? If you'd killed them, you'd have had all their power for a while, but no one capable of regenerating, and a few years down the line you'd have had the same problem you had before." Byro looked at her for a moment, dumbfounded. "And now get out of the way, I need to talk to your king." 

Really, she'd had an impulse to summon Taurus to beat that guy up, because frankly, she was still pissed at him, but when she'd reached for her keys she'd realized that she couldn't feel any magic power emanating from them, just as it had felt when she'd been bound with that strange jelly substance. Not good at all. 

Byro didn't have a chance to answer before Coco set off again and Lucy followed her. 

"He still works here?", Lucy asked. 

"Not in such an important position anymore, but he's not allowed to leave the city, so we can't really get rid of him. It was his punishment for his involvement in the events back when you guys were here", Coco explained. That punishment didn't make a lot of sense to Lucy, but before she had a chance to inquire about it, Coco stopped and gestured towards a door. 

"The king is in here." For a moment Lucy expected her to open the door and lead the way, but apparently that wasn't going to happen. So Lucy pushed the door open herself, and found herself in a huge room with a throne at the end and several tables with chairs around them close to the door. It was at one of those she found Mystogan. He still wore those strange pants, and looked pretty much the same, except that all of his clothes looked to be much better cared for than before.

He looked up as soon as she entered, and he didn't look at all happy to see her. He was standing next to a few maps and at his table Lucy could see Erza Knightwalker, who also didn't look too happy to see Lucy.

The feeling was mutual, really. After Erza Knightwalker had tried to execute Lucy, the celestial mage had gotten rid of her idea that if she was Erza she must be nice, and she was still a little miffed at that incident. 

"Lucy", Mystogan said urgently. "You're not supposed to be here!" he hissed, dragging her to a corner of the room as if to hide her presence, even though she was reasonably sure that Knightwalker was the only person in the room aside from them, and she had already seen her.

"Nice to see you, too", Lucy said sarcastically. 

"That's not what I mean. There's not supposed to be any magic in Edolas, so how did you even get here?" 

"I'm not really sure, actually", Lucy said. "I was trying to stop some sort of magical portal thing from exploding, and next thing I know, the sky is green. I was actually hoping you'd know how I can get home." 

"No, I don't. I always used Anima to cross between the worlds, and seeing how that used magic itself it can't be done anymore", he explained. 

"So you mean I'm stuck here?" While her friends back home possibly thought she was dead… what was up with copying Lisanna? She really didn't want that. 

"No, you can't stay here. If people find out we have someone with magic here, you could become a target. There's still plenty of people who aren't happy with the situation." 

"It looked like you guys were doing pretty well without magic", Lucy observed. 

"Some people are. Those that come up with creative solutions for things that we used to use magic for before are having a lot of success, but there's still a lot of people who used to have magic and basically lost their former livelihood. If they know there's magic here, there could be a riot." 

"Do you still have those weird pills that make use of magic possible here? If I can at least use some magic, maybe we'll find a way to get me home with that", Lucy said. Maybe one of her spirits could come up with an idea, too, because she wasn't sure how getting back using her type of magic would really work. 

"I have them, but I'm not sure they still work. It's worth a try though, I'll go get them." And with that he left her standing there.

She noticed Knightwalker looking at her oddly, but as soon as Lucy caught her, she looked away. The celestial mage wasn't sure if she should try to start a conversation, but she didn't really have anything to say to her. So she looked away, too, and both were left for a few minutes basking in the atmosphere of supreme awkward that pervaded the room. 

They both breathed an audible sigh of relief when Mystogan returned, but both decided not to comment on it. 

"Here. I don't know if this'll work, but let's hope for it", he said and handed her one of the tiny red balls. Lucy swallowed it, and touched her keys to see if there was any change in how they felt to her. 

There wasn't any change with the keys. But there was a rather dramatic one with her hand. It suddenly started glowing the way it had just before the explosion, and Lucy could feel the same type of magic that she'd tried to contain fill her. 

"Your majesty", Knightwalker yelled and pulled Mystogan away, as Lucy's glowing hand drew a large arch in the air, seemingly of its own account. The air in front of her started to glow, and before she had any chance to react to that, her hand stopped glowing and she was forcibly pulled into the light. 

Leaving Erza and Mystogan staring at the spot in the air where she'd disappeared. 

"Well, Problem solved", Erza announced. And it was. 

For them at least. 

 

* * *

 

Lucy got up groaning and looked at her hand. It wasn't glowing anymore, but she could feel a slight tingling sensation, a sort of afterimage of the power she had just used. Grabbing her keys she still couldn't feel any magic emanating from them, but the weird magic that had made her open the portal, or whatever it was, was still inside her, just not nearly enough to be usable right now.

She looked around and found that despite her hopes, she wasn't home. 

She was in the middle of what looked like a desert, next to a dirt road, with absolutely nothing and nobody as far as the eye could see. 

_Where the hell am I now?_

 

 


	2. Boulevard of Broken Dreams

The sun was high in the sky and had apparently decided to mercilessly beat down on Lucy, just for having the misfortune of landing wherever she was now. She really wasn't wearing a lot, which made the scorching heat a little more bearable, but also ensured that she would be sunburned all over before she got anywhere.

She had decided to follow the road, picking the direction to follow at random, and kept second-guessing herself if maybe the other way would've been the smarter choice, but changing her mind and going back really wasn't an option.

Her keys still didn't give off any impression of magic power. Wherever she was right now, she couldn't reach the celestial spirit realm with her calls. Anything but a reassuring thought. Looking around she was pretty sure Scorpio would've felt right at home here, and Virgo probably would've had a lot of fun digging holes, too. Even Loke probably would've had a good time. Sure, it wasn't quite suitable for real Lions (at least she hoped not. If one where to attack, she would be screwed) but he would probably still be in better shape then her, with her fair skin and skimpy clothes.

She watched the sun make its way across the sky as she kept walking, but it didn't really help her with orientation or being able to tell the time. All she knew was that she'd been walking for quite a long time, but her aching feet would've been enough to tell her that.

The road itself was the only thing giving her hope, really. If there was a road, even one that looked barely used as this one, there had to be some civilization. You didn't build a road that didn't go anywhere. Or so she hoped. Even finding a shaded place would've greatly helped her.

When she finally saw something in the distance, she wasn't sure whether to trust her eyes. But the further she got, the clearer it was. A small farmhouse, looking just a bit derelict, with a small windmill next to it. As she got closer she could hear the windmill creaking faintly, even though there wasn't any breeze to speak of.

Still, once she was sure that her eyes weren't playing tricks on her, she quickened her pace until she finally arrived in front of the house. It wasn't big and didn't look all that well kept. She really hoped it wasn't abandoned.

"Hello?", she called out. There was a noise from behind the house that might or might not have been someone reacting to her presence, so she decided to check back there. Next to the creaking windmill there was a patch of what looked like a sorry excuse for a field. A guy was working there, with some sort of farming device (to her shame Lucy had to admit that she knew next to nothing about farming thanks to her luxurious upbringing).

He dropped the whatever-it-was as soon as Lucy stepped near, though, and turned around to stare at her incredulously.

"Uh, hi", Lucy said, feeling a little self conscious under his stare. He looked so shocked to see her that he wasn't even blinking. "I don't want to bother you, but I was wondering if you maybe had some water for me?"

He didn't say anything but kept staring at her as though he'd seen a ghost. "Water's limited", he finally said in a really odd tone of voice.

But it was enough for her to notice that she knew that voice. And looking at him more closely, she realized that she knew the guy it belonged to as well. The dark hair didn't have the same blueish tinge, and he was way more tanned than she'd ever seen the ice mage look (much darker than Natsu, too) but it was without a doubt an alternate version of Gray Fullbuster, complete with droopy eyes and everything.

He was wearing worn out jeans and a dark plaid shirt, but it was open to reveal his abs, which Lucy only didn't stare at because it wasn't anything she hadn't seen before. Though she had to admit the dark tan, combined with the light dusting of stubble on his cheeks, made him look roguishly handsome.

The thought alone would probably be enough to get murdered by Juvia.

"Uh, well… if you could just give me a little to tide me over and point out where to go to the next town I'd be eternally grateful", Lucy tried.

He kept looking at her strangely. "There's no town", he said as if that was one of the most basic things to know.

"Well, wherever there's people and water would be good, then."

"There's no people." Well, no matter how good he looked, Lucy had to decide that this version of Gray was one odd cookie. "W…where do you even come from?"

"That's… sort of a long story", Lucy said evasively. She was reasonably sure that this wasn't her world, either, but she had no idea how familiar people in other worlds were with the idea that other worlds even existed, so it was probably prudent not to tell everybody anything.

"I got time", Gray said, and finally looked like he was over the shock of seeing Lucy. Good. Her hair was matted down from sweat and she was pretty sure she looked just as exhausted as she felt, but that didn't really warrant his weird reaction.

"Not sure if I should tell you", Lucy said hesitantly.

"I also got water", he said with just a shadow of a smirk on his face. Convincing argument, really.

"Well, then I've got a story for you."

* * *

He didn't really look like he believed her as she told him her story. She probably could've done a better job telling it, too, because when she'd started talking about having arrived in Edolas, she got sort of sidetracked retelling their previous encounter with that particular world, and all in all that made for a pretty confusing tale.

But he'd given her water and let her into his house, which wasn't too big, but still managed to be quite a bit cooler than the outside, so she reveled in being here for the moment.

"Pace yourself", he said as she was done with her story and drank the water he'd given her in big gulps. "I really don't have that much."

"Sorry", she said and slowed down a little.

"So, you're from a different world full of magic and got yourself lost by blowing up a portal thing…", he reiterated, not sounding too convinced.

"I didn't blow it up, it was gonna blow anyway, I just stopped it from taking all of Earthland and some other world, I'm guessing Edolas, with it. I just hope my friends are okay… it was a big explosion."

"Yeah, either that, or you're completely batshit crazy", Gray diagnosed, leaning back in his chair.

"I'm not crazy!", Lucy yelled indignantly.

"Crazy people don't think they are. But considering you managed to show up here, in the absolute middle of nowhere without any means of transportation, your story doesn't sound completely implausible. Or I'm going crazy, too." It didn't look as though the idea of being crazy himself really bothered him, though.

"So, your turn", Lucy said, looking around the small house. The afternoon sun was bathing it in a golden light that made everything look homey, but that didn't quite change the fact that the pots looked rusty, the chair she was sitting on was missing a leg, and the blanket on the bed seemed to consist of more patches than actual material.

"My turn, what?"

"What's your story? Why are you living in the desert on your own? And wait, what's your name, anyway?" She'd decided not to tell him that she knew a counterpart of his, so it would probably look weird if she just knew his name without asking.

"Gray. Like the color", he replied. Lucy was actually glad about that, because if he'd told her any other name now, she was just bound to have messed it up at one point or another.

He didn't say anything else, though, so Lucy looked around the room a little. It was bedroom, kitchen, dining room and living room all in one, with none of the furniture looking to be in very good condition, but tidy nonetheless.

One item caught her attention, however. It was a picture frame, and unlike everything else it looked as though it had been taken care of vey well. The glass was polished and the wood was shining, too. It was a red headed girl with a shy little smile on her face.

"Who's that?", Lucy asked, pointing at it. Gray looked in the direction, and is face fell a little as he let out a sigh.

"My girlfriend", he said in a tone Lucy couldn't quite interpret.

"Pretty. Where is she?", Lucy wanted to know. She looked somewhat familiar, but Lucy had trouble placing her, because she was pretty sure she didn't know anyone with light coppery hair like her. And the house didn't look as though anyone other than Gray himself lived there.

"She's dead", he said courtly, and Lucy suddenly felt terrible for having pried.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"

"It's been a long time", he said, as though that somehow made it better, but that look on his face told her that it didn't, not really. As she looked at the picture again, she suddenly realized why she'd looked familiar. It was Juvia. The red hair and the light dusting of freckles had put Lucy off, but now that she realized it, there was no doubt about it. "And everyone else is dead, too, so…"

"What do you mean by that? You said before 'There's no people', what's that supposed to mean?", Lucy asked. The way he was talking somehow made her uncomfortable, a feeling pooling in her stomach that she couldn't quite place.

"You really don't know, huh? That's actually harder to believe than the entire rest of your story." He scratched the back of his head, and then let out a sigh.

"It happened three years ago. Juvia, that's her name, and I had just gotten together. She'd actually been in love with me for quite a while, but I'd been sort of oblivious," At that Lucy couldn't help letting out an amused chuckle. "What?", he asked with a mildly irritated look.

"Sorry, just… that reminded me of someone I know who's in sort of the same situation."

"Oh", he said with a short nod. He wasn't looking at her as he carried on, a far away look on his face. "Anyway, we'd finally managed to work it out, and we were… really happy. The way her face lit up whenever I saw her… it was…" He took a deep breath. "Well it didn't last."

"There were some reports on the radio, but I hadn't really been paying attention to them, you know, about people who suddenly got sick, they were fine before, and then they died. The first one had happened, I don't know, like two days before, but no one was really taking it seriously yet, the doctors had just probably not found whatever was wrong with those people before…"

"We were on a date, it was a beautiful day, the beginnings of spring, pretty warm, but the ice rink was still there, and I'd promised to teach her how to skate. She was really talented, too, I don't think I picked it up that quickly when I learned it…" The look on his face reminded Lucy of those few occasions when he talked about Ul, a rare wistfulness in his eyes. And pain, too, which made Lucy feel like she was intruding as she saw it.

"She had good balance, but suddenly she fell and started coughing like… it was pretty scary, cause she just couldn't stop. And she insisted she was fine, just a little cold, even though she hadn't had any symptoms before, but she really didn't want our date to end. I managed to convince her to go to the hospital, but it probably wouldn't have mattered if she hadn't." He paused, looking at the picture, taking a deep breath before continuing.

"Two hours later she was dead. And no one had any idea why. She wasn't the only one it happened to that day, and that's when I started listening to the news of what was happening, and it was happening everywhere. Healthy people, dying, for no good reason. One news guy called it the 'three hour plague' and the name stuck."

"Over the next week it happened to more and more people, some people I knew, too, but none of that really registered for me, not the way it did with her… when the news started talking about millions I don't think anyone could really understand what it meant. And then… the next day… it was everyone. Like a dam was broken, or something, my friends, my family, just… everybody, within hours of each other. There were people lying around on the street, and not nearly enough people to even get them away from there, so they were just left lying there. In the evening there was an announcement from the government, everyone who was still alive should leave the cities, because of sanitary risks with the dead people lying around and we'd be notified when we could go back, when the crisis was over… last I ever heard from them."

"I left the city with a group of maybe twenty. I don't know why we weren't affected, neither did the others, but one by one it got them, too. Six months after the whole thing had started I was the only one left. Ever since then, I haven't seen anybody else. Until today, anyway."

Lucy sat there, glued to her chair, and had no idea what she was supposed to say to that. Whatever story she'd been expecting him to tell, this certainly wasn't it.

"So, you've been all alone all this time?", she asked breathlessly. It seemed too big to even imagine. Two and a half years without seeing anyone, talking to anyone… She wasn't sure if she could have handled that. Just imagining everyone she cared about suddenly dropping dead made her feel extremely cold inside.

"Pretty much. There's this girl, she must live somewhere in a hundred mile radius, but who knows where, she's got radio equipment, and I've been listening to her broadcasts. Helps a little."

"Does she know you're listening?"

Gray shook his head. "I don't have the equipment, I can't answer her."

"Did you ever go look for her?"

"No. I wouldn't even know which direction to go in. The water I get from my pump and the food I farm is enough for me, but I could never build a supply large enough to take on a journey like that. Staying here is really the only thing I can do."

Lucy didn't know what to say to that, so she stayed quiet.

* * *

Later on she'd helped him cook, some sort of stew out of the vegetables he had, none of which looked all too tasty, if she was honest. The end result was… edible. It wasn't really that it tasted bad, it barely tasted at all, to be honest, but it did help against the hunger, so she probably shouldn't complain.

After dinner Gray had turned the radio on. It was old and crackling static was the only thing that could be heard, but he sat in front of it patiently, waiting for something. Lucy didn't really know what to do, so she went outside and sat on the porch, looking out at the sunset that was quite stunning.

The door was open, so she could hear when he said the radio, "Come on, Levy. You're never late."

Levy… thinking of the little blue haired bookworm, sitting in front of some old equipment and talking into the darkness without any idea if anyone was even still alive to hear her, made Lucy's heart ache. She couldn't imagine it. What it was like for Levy, Gray… she really tried, but it was just too big to fit into her head.

Maybe there were others, too, scattered across the globe, each one thinking they were the last person alive, or maybe clinging to the hope that they weren't. Was there a Lucy sitting out there, too? Or was she dead along with almost everybody else? If she was still alive, how was she doing? Lucy had never been good with isolation. She had been making friends with all the servants even though her father told her it was unbecoming… she'd be terrible in this world.

Was this what the end of the world looked like? Had it already ended, and what was left was just a fading afterimage? Or was this right now, the despair and loneliness and crushing silence, was this what an apocalypse really looked like?

It wasn't cold, but Lucy hugged her knees to her chest, anyway. The worst feeling for her was, to be honest, that she just couldn't help. As a Fairy Tail mage her job was helping people who needed it. And the people here, few and far though they were, really did need help. But what could she do?

"Not you, too", she heard Gray's voice say, thick with emotion, before a loud crash made her flinch. For a moment, Lucy didn't want to look, out of respect for his privacy. But then again, he'd been all alone for two and a half years. Privacy was not what he needed.

She got up and looked through the door. The radio was lying in pieces on the floor, and Gray was walking towards her.

"Sorry", he said, before sitting down next to her. She stared at the radio for a moment. What if Levy was just late and would start talking now, but her maybe only listener couldn't hear it anymore? Then again, it wouldn't make any difference for her, would it? She didn't even know anybody had been listening all this time.

"Do you think she's…?", Lucy asked hesitantly as she sat back down next to him.

His jaw tightened as he looked out onto the seemingly endless horizon filled with rocks and rubble and an oppressing amount of nothing. He didn't answer, but he didn't really need to. If he didn't think that, he wouldn't have destroyed the radio.

Lucy tried to think of a way to change the topic, but found herself at an uncharacteristic loss. "So…" she finally started. "What do you do all day, usually?"

"Work on the farm, pumping up water… that's actually what the windmill's for, but… not really the windiest of places. I have three books, I know them all by heart. Sometimes I talk to that lizard over there", he said, gesturing towards a small lizard sitting on a stone not far from them, lazily enjoying the last rays of the sun. "It's not very rewarding", he added.

"A salamander", Lucy said with a hint of a smile when she recognized the pattern.

"Is it?", Gray asked with little interest. "I've never really been good with that sort of stuff."

Somehow Lucy found it a little comforting that Gray had at least this friend. But thinking of the little lizard made her think of her world's Natsu, and she couldn't help the sigh that escaped her lips. What were her friends doing, now? Did they think she was dead, or were they looking for her? Did they miss her?

She missed them, for sure. It hadn't been that long, but being here in a practically empty world made her feel incredibly far away.

They watched the sun set in silence, and kept sitting there long after it was gone. Soon the first stars were visible.

"Wow…" she said, smiling at the sky. "The stars are beautiful, here"

"No lights anywhere to distract from them", Gray said. "It almost always looks like this."

Lucy loved the stars. As a child she'd loved sitting outside long after her bedtime and just gaze up, trying to memorize all of the constellations. It was no coincidence that she'd become a celestial mage.

"It's amazing", she said. "You can see so many constellations that are usually hardly visible." She could spot Cancer with ease, which, due to its lack of very bright stars, was usually more guesswork than seeing.

"I don't really know constellations. I sometimes find the Big Bear one, but that's about it", Gray said with a shrug.

"Well I'm sort of a specialist", Lucy said. "I can show you. Look, over there, see those three stars that form sort of an arc? That's the tail of the Lion. And then below that, there's one brighter star, that's Regulus." She traced the shape of the constellation with her fingers, trying to point it out. At the same time she tried imagine any way for Loke to sit that would make him fit into that picture in the sky, but it just wouldn't work.

"Above it, there's the little Lion", she said, pointing further up. She really wanted to get a key for one of those some day (she really didn't have many of the silver ones, considering) just so she could summon the lion cub and Loke at the same time and watch cuteness ensue.

"And if you go further down, there's Virgo, the maiden."  _Is it time for my punishment, Princess?_ "And if you turn your head to the left a little, over there is the Dragon." She sort of wanted one of those keys, because having a dragon fighting for her would probably be pretty cool. Then again, she already had Natsu, and she really didn't want him to beat up one of her spirits (and he would, just for sport, if it was a dragon).

She pointed out more of the constellations, seeing the pictures they painted appear before her eyes. Gray listened, occasionally interrupting her to ask for clarification on which star she was talking about, or to comment that some of them didn't really make sense with which she was inclined to agree, considering that Plue's constellation was only a line of two stars. Who came up with that?

Lucy wasn't sure if Gray was interested in the stars at all, but when she looked at him she could see a faint smile on his face, the first time she'd seen this version of Gray look anything close to happy. It probably didn't really matter what she was talking about, just the fact that she was there and she was talking at all was enough to make a difference.

Levy wasn't talking to him anymore. So Lucy would just have to make up for that.

* * *

He had never explicitly invited her to stay, but after he'd gotten over his initial shock of seeing another person in his yard he was actually pretty accommodating. She had used spare blankets and pillows to construct something that was more like a nest than a bed, and stayed with him over the the course of the next week.

Lucy helped him work on his little field, for the first time appreciating how much work it was to keep yourself fed if you couldn't just buy food, and talked to him. A lot. He didn't like talking about his world, about the life he'd been leading before everything had been lost, so she told him all sorts of stories she could think of, missions she'd been on, stories other people had told her, she even went so far as to tell him the plot of the novel she was writing, something not even Levy in her world was privy to. He seemed to like it, just like his counterpart that she always had to hide her manuscript from, because whenever her friends broke into her apartment, he wanted to know what happened next.

This Gray was much quieter than the one she knew, partly because there was no Natsu around to rile him up, partly as a result of his former isolation. It felt almost as if there was a word quota for the day he had and just stayed silent after he was done with those. Not to worry, though. Lucy could talk a lot. Not that she usually did, thank you very much, but she could.

She felt her magic power regenerating, but her keys stayed passive. A slight tingling in her hand told her, she would probably be able to open another portal soon. Now that she knew what it was, maybe she could control it, think of home as hard as she could while opening the portal and then go back there.

And leave Gray behind, to be completely alone once more? No, she couldn't do that. Staying here wasn't an option either, though. It was fine right now, with the two of them, but the silence was starting to feel heavy on her sometimes. Maybe she could take him with her. Hopefully; she had no idea if that was possible with the portals.

Five days after she'd arrived she was sitting in front of the salamander's favorite rock and trying to convince it to climb onto her hand. It was surprisingly tame, considering it wasn't actually a pet. She almost had all the power she needed to open a new portal.

"Hey Lucy, food's almost ready", Gray announced, coming out of the house. "Found a new friend?", he said with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, if he would just climb on my hand the way I'm trying to teach him, we'd probably be better friends, to be honest. Come on, lizard, it's not that difficult."

"Isn't it poisonous or something?", Gray asked, scooting down next to her.

"I… don't know actually", Lucy admitted. "But you know, no risk, no fun." Still, she pulled her hand back. She honestly hadn't even thought of that, and while she had been able to recognize the lizard as a salamander, which may or may not just have been wishful thinking on her part, she didn't know anything about those animals other than their association with Natsu.

"Wouldn't you rather be killed by my cooking skills?", Gray asked with a smirk on his face. His rare smile was becoming more and more common, and Lucy couldn't help but claim it as her own achievement. He offered her a hand and helped her up.

"Your cooking's not that bad", Lucy said.

"Yeah well," his voice sounded a little rough, but he cleared his throat. "It's not any good either."

"You know, I'm a polite person, so I should really protest now, but… I'm also sort of an honest person." He laughed at that, making Lucy smile, too, until his laughter dissolved in a fit of coughing.

"You alright?", Lucy wanted to know, when the coughing went on just a little bit longer than she'd expected it to.

"Yeah, fine", Gray waved off. "Dry throat is all."

"Let's go get you something to drink then", Lucy said. They went inside, and Lucy went to get the pot off the stove. It smelled just the same as it always did, since the cuisine really didn't have much variation (he claimed that sometimes it did, based on which of his odd vegetables was in season). As she carried it over to the table, Gray started coughing again, so loudly and suddenly that it was only by pure luck that Lucy didn't drop the pot.

"Are you sure you're okay?", she asked, setting down the pot and doing her best not to wince at the rough sound that made her think his bronchia were on a mission to dislodge themselves from his chest. He shook his head this time, and pressed one hand to his chest to alleviate the pressure, and just kept on coughing.

Lucy was at a loss what to do, but she got some water and set it down in front of him, but he didn't even pause coughing long enough to drink it. He was starting to go red in the face from lack of oxygen, and Lucy suddenly found herself remembering his story. … _suddenly she fell and started coughing like… it was pretty scary, cause she just couldn't stop…_ was this…? No, it couldn't be the same thing.

When he finally stopped he grabbed for the glass and gulped down its contents, paying no heed to pacing himself due to limited supplies. "So…", he said. "This is it, then." He sounded oddly calm, taking a few deep breaths, but then he started coughing again.

"What?", Lucy asked dumbly, even though she knew what he was talking about.

The next coughing fit was thankfully much shorter. "It had to happen sooner or later. Guess I got later."

"I… I'm sure it's not that, you've just been working a lot, it's gonna go away", Lucy babbled, trying to convince herself just as much as him. He turned to look at her, looking way too calm for her taste, considering what he thought was going on.

"It is. Trust me, I know" And then there he went again, coughing so violently that just hearing the sound made her own lungs ache in sympathy. He got up shakily, bracing himself on the table, and he probably would have fallen if Lucy hadn't caught him. She half carried him over to the bed, which probably was his destination, and helped him lay down. He felt warm, way too warm, even though they were sitting in the desert.

She grabbed his hand as his coughs subsided a little, because it was really the only thing she could do.

"So you are real", he said with a faint smile as he squeezed her hand just a little. "I was afraid to find out."

"What?", Lucy asked, confused. Then she realized in all the time she'd been here she hadn't touched him before. It hadn't seemed like a big deal to her, she didn't often touch the Gray from her world, either, but now she realized he'd been avoiding it on purpose.

"I thought maybe you were just a figment of my imagination." He took a deep breath, thankfully not coughing this time. "I'm glad I was wrong. I didn't really think my imagination was creative enough to come up with all the crazy things you said, anyway." Maybe she should have been offended at that, or something, but she just laughed a little.

"I moved your stuff, I ate your food. It should have been obvious", she said.

"Two and a half years since I last saw anybody, I could've gone plenty crazy." He started coughing again, and Lucy had to blink away a few tears. As she did, she realized that her hand had started glowing. She felt the magic power in her, and realized that it probably wouldn't be long until she could open another portal.

He looked at her hand, too. "So does that mean you can go, now?" Apparently he'd been listening to her more carefully than she'd realized.

"I can take you with me. We'll find a way to cure this, and then you don't have to be alone anymore!"

"It's" cough "too late for that, I'd say." His skin had turned an unnaturally pale color, except for a feverish blush on his cheeks.

"No, it's not!", Lucy insisted. He was probably right, and she knew it, but she wouldn't be a Fairy Tail mage if she just accepted something like that.

"It's okay. It was bound to happen, I'm fine with it", he said. When she looked in his eyes, there was this serene look on his face, which made her choke for a bit with several emotions she wouldn't have been able to name in that moment.

"It's not okay", she protested weakly, "None of this is okay, it should never have happened."

"Nothing we can do about it." She couldn't think of an answer, so for a moment she could do nothing but listen to his ragged breathing, staring down at her hands. No one in this world had found any sort of explanation or cure for this disease, and she knew nothing about it, except for the fact that he didn't have a lot of time left. If she landed back in her own world and found Wendy extremely quickly, then maybe… but not even that was guaranteed. She wanted to save him, she really did, but she had no idea how to go about it. "You can go. It's fine", he suddenly said, making her head snap up. "You don't have to sit around here and watch me die."

"No", she replied with determination. "I'm not leaving." She grabbed his hand more tightly. "You're not alone."

He smiled at her, weakly, and said, "Thank you."

And as she could do nothing but watch his breathing grow more and more uneven, she felt her heart breaking.

* * *

There was no way it was three hours. It happened so quickly that it just couldn't be that much time. She kept talking, to keep both their minds occupied, but he stopped responding after a while, still breathing but dancing around the edges of consciousness.

When the labored, wheezing sounds finally stopped, Lucy let go of his hand and let the tears that had already been rolling down her cheeks flow even more freely, her frame racked with sobs that she hadn't wanted to release while he could still hear her.

His eyes were already closed, and he looked peaceful. He had been waiting for this for three years, she had to remind herself. He hadn't harbored any hope, just waiting for the inevitable, but still carried on, living and working.

"You're the strongest man I've ever met", she told him. "And you won't be forgotten."

Maybe that was her role in all of this. The reason she'd landed in this particular world, which was dying and fading into oblivion, without anybody to remember them, no one shedding a tear after they were gone. She was still here. She could remember. And she would. She promised herself that she'd tell their story, set up some sort of memorial for them.

It took a while for her to calm her crying enough to finally stand up, giving Gray one last look. Despite all the similarities he wasn't the same person as the Gray she knew at all. Their lifes' experiences shaped who they were. She sniffled one last time and then went out the door. The sun was low on the horizon, and as she looked around, she couldn't find the salamander anywhere.

Maybe it knew that his friend was gone, and had left because there was nothing here for him, anymore.

The same was true for her. As she felt the magic gather in her hand, it felt a lot more stable than it had before, more ready to do what she wanted it to and not just what it had decided on its own. She did her best to think of home, concentrated on the people, the smells, the places, and then drew her hand in a wide arc in front of her. She looked back at the little farmhouse and the creaking windmill only once, and then stepped through the portal that would take her to another world.

* * *

She immediately found herself in the middle of a throng of people, none of whom paid any attention at all to the fact that a girl had just appeared from thin air right next to them, because they were all too busy screaming and pushing each other to get closer to a blonde girl standing not far from them, signing autographs with a sort of condescending smile on her face.

A face that was covered in way too much make up, complimented by ridiculously fluffed up blonde hair.

A face that was quite undoubtedly that of Lucy herself underneath.


End file.
